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The consensus of the Council was to make the last committed payment to Youth First for 2024 <br />and only make non-profit contributions to Alexandra House moving forward. <br /> <br />2.06: Discuss Restricting Non-Owner Applicants on Residential Variance Requests <br /> <br />City Administrator Hagen reviewed the Staff report concerning restricting non-owner applicants <br />from residential variance requests. He shared this item was requested by Councilmembers Howell <br />and Musgrove. He shared the recommendation of Staff and City Attorney Knaak to not implement <br />this change. <br /> <br />Councilmember Howell shared that she had concerns with a Ramsey resident having someone else <br />applying for a variance request on their property. <br /> <br />City Administrator Hagen explained that the property owner is required to sign off on all land use <br />applications for both residential and commercial uses. <br /> <br />Councilmember Howell said her idea behind this was to have the property owner who wants the <br />variance to be the one who actually applies for it. <br /> <br />Councilmember Specht asked how they would enforce this and know who is actually filling out <br />the application. <br /> <br />Councilmember Howell stated she is not concerned with someone getting assistance with filling <br />out the form; however, she would not want the applicant to be someone who does not live at the <br />residence. <br /> <br />Mayor Kuzma asked if this would prohibit someone from having their attorney work on their <br />application. <br /> <br />Councilmember Musgrove asked if the attorney would be the one filling out the paperwork or if <br />they would just be assisting the resident in filling this out. <br /> <br />City Attorney Knaak shared that there is such a wide variety of applications, and the property <br />owner is required to sign the application. He noted that absentee property owners can be an issue <br />in these cases if someone else is living at the property and they are the interested party. He said <br />the key is that they cannot have someone who is pretending to be the property owner signing off <br />on the application when the property owner does not have full knowledge of what is going on. He <br />noted that the burden is on the property, and they would not want to do anything that would impede <br />the property owner’s right to represent themselves. He added that this could also restrict the options <br />the property owner has to advance their interest. <br /> <br />Councilmember Howell asked if there is enough responsibility with the way this is currently set <br />up that the liability falls on the property owner and not the applicant. <br /> <br />City Attorney Knaak said yes and added that this ordinance requires more disclosure than some <br />other cities. <br />City Council Work Session / October 22, 2024 <br />Page 12 of 15 <br /> <br />